Cañada Hosts High School & Community Partners Forum

On November 19, Cañada College hosted its third annual High School Counselor & Partner Forum, held virtually. The event kicked off with a warm welcome from Interim College President, Kim Lopez, and Vice President of Student Services, Dr. Manuel Alejandro Pérez. Attendees received updates on vaccination requirements, the College’s Recovery with Equity Plan and Department and Program updates.  Interim Financial Aid Director Andrea Garcia-Rittgers and representatives of the Promise Scholars Program encouraged everyone to help spread the word so all students apply for financial aid and Promise.  

Lezlee Ware, Professor at Cañada College and now also Program Coordinator for Umoja, shared exciting information about Umoja at Cañada College which is set to launch in the Spring 2022 semester.  Marcos Chacon, from the Personal Counseling Center spoke about the personal counseling services offered to students. Student Ambassadors, Bella Zhang and Chloe Kim, spoke about our Disability Resource Center. 

Mayra Arellano, Director of High School Transition & Dual Enrollment, and Jen Petroelje, Middle College Instructor, also shared information about our early college credit programs. These programs include Middle College, Dual Enrollment & Concurrent Enrollment.  

After program updates, attendees chose from one of two, 20-minute sessions to attend.  The first session included a Concurrent Enrollment training workshop for high school counselors.  Cañada College Counselor Nadya Sigona offered high school counselors information and tips to better help students who are interested in taking classes at Cañada College while still in high school.  The second session was a Community Focus Partner, led by Olivia Cortez-Figueroa, College Recruiter, and Ariela Villalpando, Interim Director of High School Transition & Dual Enrollment.  In this session, community partners provided feedback on what they would like to see from Cañada College to further strengthen our relationships and our commitment to serving students and the community.  This second session was offered as a result of survey feedback the College received after last year’s same event.

Feedback from the attendees was very positive and some great ideas were discovered from the breakout rooms. For example, the Community Partner Focus group got along so well and had such great ideas, that College Recruiter Olivia Cortez-Figueroa, offered to create and lead a Cañada College & Community partner group that will meet every other month to continue to promote and encourage communication and collaboration.

The Forum was recorded and can be found here using passcode: &47QB*r?